


Could You Love This?

by orphan_account



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: A little Bughead in there, Angst, ArchieRonnie, F/M, First Varchie Fic!, Fluff, I KNOW IM SORRY, Loving Archie, Protective Archie, Slow Burn, Teen Pregnancy, Veronica is struggling, anyway, but wait, discontinued, happy ronnie, i think yes... someday, ik i'm so original, notcluelessbutstillalittledumbsometimesarchie, please enjoy, ronnie andrews?, sad ronnie, varchie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-10-27 22:10:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17775131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Veronica Lodge could count her blessings on her fingers. How could anyone love that?





	1. lightning crashes

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first ever archieronnie fic, and i'm really hyped tbh. it's a pregnancy au, and yeah yeah, i know, but it's frickin cute, alright? i love archie this season (as in 3) and i wrote this story set during their senior year, so all that character development has set in by now. i hope you enjoy! (i really want varchie to have some fics out there so stay tuned for a oneshot series and some three-part stories and such) LOVE YOU.

A timer ticked steadily from the corner of the bathroom. The soft and subtle scent of roses emitting from the air freshener plugged into the wall was admittedly nauseating all things considering, and as far as air fresheners go, that one had to be superior to the rest. Veronica didn’t feel like doing this anymore. The clock on the wall said fifty-three seconds, but her phone said a minute, and waiting didn’t make her nervous anymore. Waiting just made her tired. Tired, and far more confused than before.

 _Ding!_ That had to have been the longest minute of her life. 

Before flipping it over, Veronica set it aside to take a look at all the others stacked in a pile from the bottom to the top of a shoebox. They were all so faint. Every website she’d researched on said to wait a couple of days, and she waited hours instead, leaving her with a pile of uncertainty shoved in that stupid shoebox. Now, though, it had been two days. Now, she had four of those ClearBlue branded sticks that would tell her with absolute clarity. Now, she would look down and see four words in a row, stick to stick, stating _“Pregnant.”_

God Fucking Dammit.

The shoebox flew across the room, showering the tile floor in various brands of pregnancy tests, including the confetti sized ones she’d gotten from the dollar store a few weeks after it happened when she’d freaked herself out so badly she bought some, knowing it would be too early anyway. It still felt too early. Despite how long her summer dragged out, Veronica could close her eyes and imagine that night in a moment’s notice. She could picture the sunset that day, or the damp grass, or the way his hair looked in the wind and his eyes as-

Fuck, she was doing it again. 

Regardless of her current situation, her brain wouldn’t stop reminding her of the one thing she had since she’d broken up with Reggie. She wasn’t going around thinking about _Reggie’s_ hair or _Reggie’s_ eyes, no, but instead _his_ hair and _his_ eyes, as if she had the right to think of him at all. After all they’d been through, too. After the way he yelled at her and left her and looked at her in Pop’s when she’d first arrived at Riverdale. After the way she’d loved him and fought for him and ignored the way he wanted her in the beginning. No, they didn’t deserve soulmates. 

And in Veronica’s reality, he couldn’t have been there, then, as she sat on the bathroom floor in tears, staring angrily at the scattered tests on the floor, mocking her, telling her she’d never have a happy ending. Fuck. She would never, ever, have a happy ending. One shit thing after another shit thing and the world was crashing around her every second before she could cry out for help. What a hand of cards she’d been dealt. 

Frustrated, angry, and mostly just sad, Veronica gathered the pile of thrown sticks and placed them back in the box. Along with the four she’d just taken, there were nineteen pregnancy tests in all, each positive, and each a punch in the gut from God. If her mother had been good all that time as she’d shown she was, was she there now? Was Hermione Lodge watching from above with a hand on Veronica’s shoulder? She closed her eyes and tried to feel it, sense it, anything to prove it was. Anything to prove her mother was good and loving. Anything to prove Veronica could be, too. 

*****

She woke up slow and irritated as her alarm rang through her bedroom. It was seven a.m. and the sun was still rising early, thank God. It wasn’t her favorite thing to fall asleep in darkness and wake up just the same, not since she lost everyone and everything all at once. The moon was her only friend past nine p.m.

After peeling away the rose-tinted sheets covering her body (looking far too sickly and thin), Veronica shook her stiff limbs and breathed a shallow breath. It was harder and harder each day to wake her body up when it worked so hard to stay asleep. Not to mention, the nausea that greeted her upon waking wasn’t so welcoming either. That morning, it turned for the worse. 

Running on the hardwood floor to the cold tiles of her bathroom, her raven hair fell over her cheeks as everything she’d eaten since yesterday made a violent reappearance. Okay, well, this was new. She envisioned it happening after hearing stories of the horrible shit her mother endured during the nine months Veronica was created, but there was no way she could prepare for the chronic presence of symptoms she would have to live with. Just one more thing to fuck shit up. 

After her episode, she was glad to feel normal enough to make it to school showered, hair curled, makeup done, and wearing a t-shirt and black pleated skirt. The worst part was leaning down and tying the laces of her boots as she fought the bile climbing up her throat. She was starting to question whether or not she did the right thing that last week. 

She had gone, alright? She went to the clinic, fully prepared to make everything a little less horrible than the day before and continue her life like any other normal teenager in that little town of horrors, but instead she listened to the heartbeat. The loud, fast beating of a tiny heart that wasn’t hers, residing in her body, signaling the presence of something she could maybe love… So she didn’t. On the off chance of doing something worthwhile, she didn’t follow through with taking the pills that would flush it out and let her forget about ever trying. 

Thinking about that day, Veronica stopped feeling the regret. 

*****

“Oh my GOD!” Kevin exclaimed to Betty, who seemed to be retelling some summer tale about her and Jughead at the beach house they rented over fourth of July. Those two spent every second together in the blazing heat and swimsuits while the summer months passed. 

“I know! I thought that guy was going to pull out a camera and start, like, documenting us or something. Seriously, Kevin, I don’t know what we would’ve done!” Betty was saying, clearly exasperated recalling the events. Veronica found herself not really caring.

“V!” 

There it is.

“Hey,” Veronica replied, “I’m sorry for missing Pop’s this morning.”

“That’s… it’s okay, Veronica.”

Great, it _was_ going to be weird. 

Thank the lord, Kevin swooped in to save the day.

“I’ve been waiting all summer to tell you about Moose, Veronica,” he said, grabbing her wrist and leading her to the couch in the student lounge. He proceeded to tell her about their rendezvous in Greendale every Friday and how Moose told him he loved him next to a fire after they’d gone at it for like, three hours. The scene was eerily similar to one of her own.

“Kev,” Veronica smiled and grabbed his hand, “that’s amazing.” 

Kevin looked like he might cry, and it suddenly became evident to her how much he’d been through to make it where he did. Some people have to wait forever to be loved.

“Hey, don’t start crying on me,” Veronica said, running her hand up and down his arm for some resemblance of comfort. Unfortunately, Kevin was crying, and hard, too.

“I just want it to last forever,” he breathed out, reaching up to wipe away the stray tears. 

“I know… and you deserve for it to. Believe me. Now dry those tears and dance it out, Kevin Keller!” Veronica got up from the couch, pulling her friend up with her, and started dancing around the coffee table. Kevin laughed and danced along with her, humming something from a Broadway musical to keep the beat. 

It was fun, and maybe even a little stress relieving until Veronica spun around and felt a pang of nausea roll in her stomach. 

“Fuck!” 

Three seconds later and she was hurling into a garbage can. 

*****

“V, are you sure you’re okay?” Betty asked, rubbing her friend’s back in the corner of the girl’s bathroom. Even looking her in the eye, Betty seemed a million miles away to Veronica. 

“That was weird, but it’s probably nothing,” she lied, inconspicuously placing a hand over the tiny, barely-there bump between her hips. Knowing what was happening under the surface suddenly seemed vastly terrifying. Who was she to think she could ever do this?

Veronica let Betty talk to her like normal and tried not to think of how distanced she’d become from her friends and her life. Fuck, she knew nothing about Kevin and Moose until that day. What else had she missed out on? What else in an attempt to avoid the company of Archie Andrews and Josie McCoy? Who was she _really_ hurting?

She couldn’t decide if it was her or them. 

 


	2. you waited smiling for this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a little stressed about this story, but we're gonna see how it goes. i'm kind of loving it? i don't know. also this is unedited because i'm lazy, it's that simple. anyway, enjoy!

It was surprisingly easy to pass over what had happened on the first day of school. Veronica managed to push it all far enough to the side to make room for old Veronica around her friends, and she didn’t hate pretending to be happy and good when it meant protecting everyone else. She simply refused to think about it, and for the first week, everything felt almost normal. Lunch was the same as always, and Kevin and Betty sat beside her each day, sometimes even Jughead. The only real difference from any other typical day at Riverdale High was the black cloud hanging above Veronica’s head.

  
No one looked at her the same anymore. After the death of her mother and her father’s arrest among the chaos of their junior year, it wasn’t uncommon to find passing glances lasting longer than they should. The freshman would whisper loudly, oblivious to the fact that Veronica, believe it or not, had a working pair of ears, and it wasn’t unusual to hear her own gossip from the sophomores and juniors, either, but it happened far less frequently.

  
Her own class, however, kept to themselves.

  
They knew of her struggle to keep the Pembrooke under her name after Hermione Lodge was murdered by Hiram before they’d finally pinned him down for his crimes. It was also well known how Veronica had to fight to live on her own rather than with a foster family until she turned eighteen (why bother, after everything?) So, in short, the seniors who weren’t inner circle left her to her own devices.

  
Except for Archie.

  
On the Monday after the first weekend of the school year, Veronica thought she had it all together. She’d managed to weave her way around him and Josie in class and the halls, and the whole pregnancy thing was still too early in development to be a burden on anything other than her mentality. If it weren’t for the shoebox under her bed and the occasional urge to vomit, she may have even forgotten about it.

  
That is if Archie didn’t try to approach her in the hallway.

  
He must have noticed how dark her under-eyes were or her lack of hair-care because he seemed incredibly worried when he tapped her shoulder at her locker.  
“Veronica,” he said quietly, looking her straight in the eye as she turned to him.

  
“Archie, uh, hey. What’s up?” She asked, forcing a small smile on her berry-tinted lips. Looking up at his weary eyes and soft expression was all it took to ruin whatever mask she’d put on to hide the mess underneath.

  
“I’m not dumb, Ronnie, you look exhausted. Are you doing okay?” He asked, dropping his shoulders.

  
“Listen, I’m not a little kid, Archie. I can take care of myself.”

  
He looked unconvinced.

  
“You’ve been wearing t-shirts, Veronica.”

  
He got her there.

  
She rolled her eyes at him and shut her locker with a clang. All she could do was tell herself it didn’t matter what he thought because he left her and there was Josie now and it was all too complicated to deal with on a Monday.

  
“Please,” she whispered, glancing around the hallway to scope out who could be observing the scene, “leave it, Archie.”

  
He looked almost angry as he turned to walk away, but Veronica didn't think about that too much. Maybe she would have if Josie hadn’t arrived followed by a group of girls including Cheryl and Toni who had their hands clasped together and that signature boss bitch look on their faces.

  
Archie stopped turning and smiled as he saw his girlfriend approaching. Josie smiled back and reached up to peck him on the lips, but the moment was quickly interrupted.

  
“Josie, aren’t you curious as to what she is doing with Archie?”

  
Leave it to Cheryl to ruin Veronica’s chance to get away. The air felt suddenly a lot less breathable.

  
“Nothing, Cheryl, I was just leaving,” she said, praying to God she could deflect this situation. But as usual, no one up there seemed to be listening.

  
“Really? Because it looked pretty intimate a minute ago if you ask me. Also, everyone’s been wondering what the deal is with you lately. We’ve never seen you so… homely.” And the viper strikes again.

  
“Just leave her alone, Cheryl,” Archie said, still holding Josie in his arms.

  
“Oh, you’re protecting her?” Cheryl questioned.

  
Josie piped up in retaliation, “dear God, Cheryl, just let it go!”

  
“You were the one who wanted to snoop in the first place, but whatever you say…”

  
The silence was deafening. Had Josie really came over there to stick her nose in their conversation? Veronica knew her friend was strong-willed but she had no idea she could be that shady. Asking her to sing at the speakeasy over the weekend didn’t feel so right all of the sudden.

  
“Josie did you—,” Veronica couldn’t continue.

  
The hallway felt hot and claustrophobic as she rushed away, trying to make it to whatever bathroom was nearest as her symptoms reappeared. Bile was rising in her throat.

  
“Veronica I swear— it’s just Cheryl!” She heard Josie call from behind her. In the mix, she also made out Archie’s voice and maybe even Toni’s, but it didn’t slow her down. The room was spinning and she should have chosen the boots without the heel.

  
The door of the girl's bathroom slamming behind her, Veronica made it to the nearest stall and hurled over the toilet bowl. The immediate relief that followed almost made up for the horrors that had just occurred. She couldn’t believe Josie. Yeah, maybe they hadn’t necessarily spoken outside of business relations during the summer, but the betrayal hurt.

  
Josie didn’t trust Veronica with Archie.

  
For some reason, it had never occurred to her how it all looked from the outside. Everyone seemed so focused on her family life and Hiram Lodge himself that it didn’t seem realistic that they’d be thinking about… her and Archie? Josie always seemed so friendly and trusting…

  
Veronica was feeling sick again.

  
Yeah, maybe it was over now and maybe whatever love they had was gone, but she and Archie had always been such a safe place. No matter what, that part of her belonged to them, good or bad, and no one else had access. It was shocking to think that that wasn’t necessarily true. It was shocking to realize the impact of everyone else regarding such a personal situation.

  
Veronica pictured the reaction to her baby— Archie’s baby— and felt ugly. Not that it seemed beautiful and magical before, but now it felt gross and terrible. The image of her swollen abdomen as the months would go by and Josie’s reaction to Archie’s involvement or even Betty and Jughead…

  
No no no. This was wrong. She couldn’t do this.

  
Her friends? What about Fred? What right did she have to bring a child into her world, broken and desolate, with no one by her side? But Archie…

  
No, he wouldn’t. Veronica managed to convince herself that Archie would not be involved. Fuck, the boy probably had a music career ahead of him, or a football scholarship or something. And after the torture he had endured, or the way she pushed him away, or the mess he had to clean up after he returned— she couldn’t.

  
She had to go back to the clinic, she needed to—

  
“Veronica.”

  
It was Jughead.

  
Nothing made sense until Veronica turned around and saw not only Jughead Jones, but Betty and Archie as well, standing above her looking confused and worried.

  
What’s new?

  
Archie looked like he was about to speak, but Betty hushed him and knelt down.

  
“V, are you okay?” She asked.

  
Veronica felt immensely grateful that her friend hadn’t said “Josie’s so sorry,” or, “you know Cheryl, she’s just trying to get to you,” because she might have slapped her.

“No,” she whispered.

  
It felt real, then. The feeling of not being okay at all.

  
“What do you need, V? Jughead can take you home, or we can go to my house. Maybe it isn’t busy at the park and we can take a walk and talk about this…”

  
Betty meant well. Veronica knew she did, and she wanted to take her up on all of her offers, but she couldn’t. Not after thinking about the magnitude of being pregnant with Archie’s baby. She felt like she might spontaneously combust if she didn’t tell him now.

  
“Thank you, Betty,” Veronica said, playing with the bracelet on her left wrist, “but I think I just really need to talk to Archie.”

  
That turned a couple of heads. Archie’s and Jughead’s, to be specific.

  
“Really? About what?” Archie asked, glancing at his friends and back to Veronica.

  
She felt very aware of herself now that it was quiet. At least she’d flushed the toilet.

  
“Can we go sit in the truck, Archie?”

  
*****

  
Fred’s old truck still smelled the same. A mixture of worn leather and exhaust lingering in the cab, especially potent in the heat. Sitting in the passenger's seat felt like entering the living room of a childhood home. Not that Veronica knew much about that.

  
“What is it?” Archie asked.

  
Veronica was taken aback, forgetting the purpose of going all the way out to the truck with Archie in the middle of the school day.  
She noticed the sun reflecting off the windshield.

  
“How are you and Josie?” She wasn’t really thinking about what came out of her mouth.

  
“What?” Archie replied. Veronica needed to find a way to save herself, because how does an ex-girlfriend come back from a question like that?  
“You know, like, are you guys doing okay? After… this morning, I mean.”

  
Archie clearly saw right through her but ignored it. “Well, I asked for some space after it happened. She thought I was trying to break up with her but I told her just for the rest of the day. Haven’t seen her since, and I’m out here with you, so.”

  
For some reason, Veronica didn’t know how to respond. She still felt like the bad guy in the situation.

  
“Fuck, I’m sorry,” was what came out.

  
“For what? You didn’t do anything, Ronnie.”

  
The nickname made her want to curl in on herself. Instead, she flipped herself around in the seat so she faced Archie right on.

  
“Yeah? Well my fault or not, Josie and Cheryl seem to think so.”

  
Archie sighed and rubbed his eyes, throwing his head back onto the headrest. In the sunlight, Veronica could see the scattered freckles just dark enough to decipher from his skin-tone and his hair glinted with bright red undertone when it usually seemed duller. He looked younger to her.

  
“You know… I almost ran after you,” he said, turning to look at her.

  
“Why?”

  
“Cause I saw your face like that.” He was whispering now. “Pale and afraid.”

  
She almost blurted it out, then. Staring at his rough, calloused hands and listening to him breathe; it would have been so easy— but Veronica didn’t do anything the easy way.

  
“The only thing I was afraid for was you,” she told him, her eyes blurring and stinging with tears. It was true. She was afraid to ruin him. She was afraid to wreck his relationship. She was afraid to take away his opportunities. She was afraid to lose him forever.

  
“Archie, I need to tell you something.”

  
Veronica didn’t want to live in fear anymore.

  
“And it’s gonna suck, okay?”

  
Fear had driven her choices for so long.

  
“So you can yell if you want. Or cry or run away.”

  
God, she was sick of being scared.

  
“But I’m just gonna say it.”

  
So she wasn’t scared. She was crying and hiccuping, but she wasn’t scared.

  
(This is how she looked to Archie: Her hair, tucked behind one ear, half curled and messy. Her eyes, wet and lighter than usual. Her face, flushed with smudged makeup. Her legs folded up and her knees in her arms. He wondered how it would feel to hold her.)

  
“I’m pregnant, Archiekins.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg! it's a cliffhanger.


	3. to be stronger, i'm no mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a little short and not my favorite, but i hope you guys like it better than i do lol. xo

_“I’m pregnant, Archiekins.”_

_*****_

Archie didn’t speak. Veronica watched as he slowly looked downward and bounced his knee, breathing shallowly. She remembered sitting in his room over a year ago, cross legged on his bed and reading for school when she looked up and saw him as she did now, head down and knee bouncing. At the time she’d put a hand on his shoulder and he’d looked over and shrugged off her concern. As it turned out, he was stressing over her father, and she had no idea. Now she understood his pain, but felt no less distant. 

She wiped away the tears falling down her face. 

“I’m nine weeks,” she said, “and I know because you and I were the last time…”

He continued to be silent, now bringing his hand up to rest his forehead on, covering his eyes with his fingers. She wondered in her head when the last time was that he’d used those fingers to play on the strings of his guitar. He tells everyone he does at home, but even Josie can’t attest to that. 

“I’m only telling you because you deserve to know, I don’t expect you to be involved if that’s not—“

“What?” He chimed in, removing his hand from his head and looking up at her. Veronica moved her knees closer to her chest. She considered her angle here, knowing that Archie was headstrong and wouldn’t take her crap if he tried. 

“I don’t want you to ruin your life, Archie. You have Josie and scholarships and your music, I can’t—“

“What about your life, Ronnie?”

  She paused. All day, the only thing on her mind had been Archie, and Archie’s future, or Archie’s feelings. She had forgotten about her own. Among the impending fear of growing a baby for nine months and raising it all on her own, she never once stopped and asked herself, “but what about _your_ life?” 

She’d ignored the consequences of going through with it for the sake of them. Archie and the baby. If she chose not to, she still would have told Archie, and the thought of him hearing the fate of his unborn child in Veronica’s hands felt gross and wrong. 

“You have an out, Archie, you can live your life!” She was raising her voice now, shaking with hot tears rushing down her cheeks.

“Well I’m not taking it.”

“Why?” She whispered.

For a moment it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room with a vacuum, leaving stale emptiness and nothing to breathe. Archie’s face was flushed and his eyes were filling with tears. Veronica had only seen him cry a small handful of times, and now he looked so fucking vulnerable that she almost reached for him.

“I’m not doing that to you. I don’t care what you have to say about it, Ronnie.” 

She wanted to say something, but her words had disappeared, falling down a cliff she couldn’t see over. He then moved forward and gathered her into his arms, wrapping them around her waist and pulling them chest to chest. Her breathing hitched as she sobbed into the skin of his neck, gripping his hair in her hands and trying to focus on something to calm down. 

She felt suspended in time. It was as if nothing existed outside of right now, and there would be no one else to confess to and no one else to talk to and no one else to be afraid of. Despite it all, she continued to cry on Archie, her cheek sticking to his neck from all of the tears. He began to rock them, running his hand up and down her back, and whispered to her.

“It’s okay, we’re gonna be okay,” he said, over and over again. Somehow, with the sound of his voice and the nature of what was happening compared to everything else that had gone wrong, Veronica thought maybe, _maybe,_ Archie was right.

*****

Promising not to spiral out, Archie agreed to take Veronica home. 

School was on for another hour, and even though they'd missed two periods, Archie didn't want to cause extra confusion, so he chose to go back for the rest of the day. It was the ride back to the Pembrooke when things got kind of weird. 

Archie looked uncomfortable and shifted around in his seat, looking at the road straight on and avoiding Veronica's gaze. She looked over at him the whole way, trying to read some kind of signal, but there were none. It must have been sinking in, maybe. Now that the flood of emotions had subsided, the reality of it was different. Babies were hard and his relationships would get harder because of one. Veronica suspected he was feeling maybe a little like she had been, floating away from himself.

Fortunately for her, the silence only lasted to her driveway.

"Hey... you don't _not_ want me around for this, right?" Archie asked, "because I don't want you to think you have any less right to your life than I do to mine." 

"Of course I want you around," Veronica whispered. 

Archie seemed satisfied with that, smiling shallowly but genuinely, and slowed to a stop at her door. 

*****

Betty called at five-thirty that evening. Veronica had been laying on her bed, finishing some assignments and working on an essay for an upcoming scholarship to distract herself after Archie took her home, when her phone went off playing ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ by Ella Fitzgerald. 

“Hey,” she answered.

_“V! Jug, Archie and I are going to Pop’s. We can pick you up,”_ said Betty, sounding worried behind her typically cheery voice. Veronica bit at her nails, contemplating whether or not she could handle seeing Archie again today. She was surprised he hadn’t opted out himself.

“Yeah, B, I’ll be ready in five,” she said.

Getting up from her bed, Veronica went to her bathroom, shuffling across the floor in a pair of fluffy socks (she’d found them in her closet and decided she could use the comfort). The mirror was dirty and she was out of toothpaste since this morning, which was more evidence of her poorly handled life. It felt surreal— to be alive like this— waiting for another moment of peace among the chaos she’s created. Life was in motion while she stood still. 

The sink ran water and she washed her face clean, applying moisturizer and a fresh layer of makeup to cover her pale, sunken skin. Her clothes were fine, a black tank top and the skirt she’d worn earlier, so she chose to leave it at that. She had told Betty five minutes, after all.

Making her way to the front entrance of the Pembrooke, she spotted Smithers at his post, shuffling through a notebook and jotting things down. She had hired him back after her father went to prison, and it was the one piece of normal she had.

“I’m out to dinner, Smithers,” she said, pausing to give him a smile.

 

He returned a much brighter smile than she'd managed, and closed his books to give her full attention.

"Enjoy yourself. You deserve it, Miss Veronica," he said.

Veronica couldn't help but widen her smile, then. 

*****

Betty and Veronica arrived after the boys, walking in to find them at a booth by the window with milkshakes ordered for everyone. Vanilla for Betty. Chocolate for Veronica. Another chocolate for Jughead and a root beer float for Archie. 

Archie. He sat facing away from them as they came in, but looked around and offered a smile. Betty offered one back. Veronica held her breath and tried not to slip up. 

“Girls, nice of you to show up,” Jughead said, sipping his milkshake. 

Veronica rolled her eyes and Betty tried to explain how Veronica took a little longer than the five minutes she’d promised. 

Okay, yeah. She couldn’t really argue with that. 

Betty slid in beside her beau, leaving Veronica with no choice but to sit by Archie (which would have been fine, obviously, but all things considered…yeah). Archie luckily reached his hand over to squeeze hers and when the lovebirds across the table had preoccupied themselves with mundane conversation, he whispered to her.

“We’re okay, remember? It’s okay, Ronnie.”

(She would never— yes, never— admit it, but in that moment she felt a pang of jealousy toward Josie.)

After that, the dinner went by smoothly. They each expressed how they missed being with each other in a booth as they were, drinking milkshakes and eating fries. Betty even mentioned an old memory of Jughead drinking from Veronica’s glass to piss her off after she’d complained about his ‘Ponyboy’ fashion statement. 

So, yeah. Maybe this was the best she’d felt in months.

Maybe it was going to be okay.

 


	4. MESSAGE FROM AUTHOR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm discontinuing this story.

Hello!

So first of all, I am incredibly sorry for how abrupt this is.

I went into writing this fic wholeheartedly and I really loved the idea and the story, but in the third chapter, I started to become very self-conscious about my writing and how it isn't representative of my ability. 

I don't feel proud of it. 

Right now, I'm trying to work through a lot of things and become a person without totally dying, and little things like a poorly written story can cause more damage than I anticipated.

I know this is out of the blue, but I plan to come back to this idea in the future even if it means restarting at another time.

Meanwhile, I'm not done writing Varchie, not by a longshot! I have a Hunger Games AU in the works and the first chapter will be out in hopefully the next couple of weeks! 

Getting back into writing is hard, and I'm still trying to rediscover my groove (lol), but I'm working on it and have like ten one-shots started in the process of finding it! So expect a lot more from me, and to see this story picked back up in the future.

I love writing for you all. 

Thank you so much for reading!

 

Much love, Hannah

 


End file.
